There is US in SOULS
by Time Locked Maniac
Summary: An AU of the Winx Club world from Season One, where Bloom actually has friends and he gets possessed by a certain Spirit. Then all your expectations of a plot get blown out the water because I'm crazy. Welcome to Alfea, people.
1. Welcome to Alfea, coma guy

"Your mom's pretty hilarious you know? Compared to other moms that is." I smirked as her face dropped into a deadpan.

"No, she's not. She's evil for making me wake up at seven thirty in the morning when I don't even have school." Her monotonous voice made me chuckle.

"That's your fault for not remembering that you're on vacation. Also, you need to wear something else other than that crop tee, it's starting to annoy me that you have seven of these in your closet and you choose to wear them everyday."

She blushed and punched my arm.

"Shut up! You don't know fashion like I do." She flicked her hair back.

"But what I do know is that wearing the same outfit for a few days in a row is boring as hell. I mean, I do a consistent theme of trousers and shirts, but I have more than a frigging set." I gestured to her clothing to emphasise my point.

"Well thanks captain know it all, I will take note of your words of wisdom." Her deadpan was back with a vengeance.

"Coming from the girl who still fantasises about fairies." I dodged her punch now, and had to sidestep another pedestrian, apologising as I bumped into him.

"Alternatively, this could be one of those horrible stories I hate that have those predictable plot twists of the main character being a part of the world they love to fantasise about." I glanced at her red hair.

It might actually be possible too. All her relatives and parents have either brown or black hair, so the chances of her being adopted is high. Alternatively, her ear lobes aren't the same as her parents, so she might not even be related since that's a part of the genes passed down from her parents.

"You ok?" Her blue eyes gazed into mine with concern. I fought the urge to stare back, and glanced around.

"Yeah, just thinking about the next story I'm about to write." I blatantly lied, but she didn't seem to notice as she just nodded.

We walked for a couple of feet more, and the sounds of a certain girl's whining echoed from in front.

God damn it, it's that bitch.

The incorrigible creature from the bowels of hell was leaning against the metal fence, telling some workers unloading a scooter to be careful not the scratch it.

Heh, if I was them I would just blow it up on the spot with a bunch of Noble Phantasms.

Wait... That wasn't me.

"So you're going out with your boyfriend huh Bloom?" Her mocking voice pierced my thoughts.

"At least she isn't a bitch like you, you fucking whore."

That took her and Bloom aback.

And me.

What's going on with me? First my skin's getting tanner with no reason, then my hair's starting to grow white and now I'm becoming a sarcastic son of a bitch.

I pushed Bloom onwards before any one of us could say anything else.

"What was that?" She stared at me weirdly.

"I... I have no idea." I stared into my hands. "There's... there's something wrong with me Bloom. I'm changing. Somehow."

She tried to smile, and was about to say something until I stopped her with a hand.

"I'm literally physically changing. I have not been under the sun for more than an hour a day and I'm starting to tan up." I rolled my sleeves up to show her. "Even the skin not exposed to the sun's tanning up. And my hair's starting to whiten too. Not just a few strands. ALL of my hair's becoming white from the roots."

Before I could freak out anymore, something hit me.

* * *

Argh, my head...

I reached up to touch my head to see what was wrong, but a tugging IN MY ARM made me pause.

I turned to look at my arm, and I saw Bloom covering her mouth, with a bunch of other girls around her. The room I was in resembled a hospital room, except I couldn't recognise the view.

"... Bloom?" My voice was weak. My arm looked thin, a far cry from my moderately obese self.

"You're alright." She was tearing up. The other girls looked uncomfortable, and the blonde was whispering to the others. I caught what they said, and frowned slightly.

Wait, magic?

"Bloom, what happened?" She clutched my arm weakly, and turned to look at the other girls. They nodded understandingly, and left the room.

"You're alright." She traced my face with a finger.

"Of course I'm alright." I gave a weak smile, but her grimace told me that I obviously wasn't.

"Bloom, what happened?" Fear started to flood my mind. What had happened to me to make me lose consciousness? For my friend to be this worried?

"You-" She gulped. "You fainted suddenly that day-" Wait, how long has it been?"- and I didn't know what to do because all the doctors said you were physically healthy but there was something obviously wrong since you were in a week long coma, so I got the Winx Club-" the what now? "To help me out, see if there was any magic that could help you, or just diagnose you." Tears were flowing freely from her eyes at this point.

"It's ok Bloom, I'm alright now. Breathe in, compose yourself." She nodded at my words, before giving a weak giggle.

"Even after a coma you're still like this." She shook her head, almost in disbelief. "So, Flora managed to find out what was wrong with you, and apparently another soul was forcing itself into you. We couldn't just remove it, it was too strong. So we had to break it into pieces before removing each piece from your body. We didn't know if we broke your soul or the other one, but we had to try because it was the only way you would wake up."

She took a shaky breath, having lost her composure yet again. I touched her arm, and the smile she gave was slightly bigger this time.

"Ms. Faragonda helped us with ensuring that only one soul would be damaged, but we weren't sure which one."

I nodded.

"Now, here's my question-" I frowned, and tilted my head in thought. "No, questions. Firstly, who is Ms. Faragonda, why do you know magic, what is this Winx Club and why are you still wearing that outfit?"

So I was right about Bloom being a fairy. And that the cliché was correct and that there are entire realms out there with magic.

Well, it's good to see that she finally made friends with girls her age, even if that Stella's a little too slutty for my liking. Like, woman do you have no decency? At least Bloom wears long pants instead of that pathetic excuse for short shorts.

After Bloom caught me up with the current events and left me a little more than stunned, she introduced the Winx to me.

"So, before we begin, you're all from different dimensions and realms that have similar concepts of magic hence why there's a single school teaching it, right?"

They looked at each other before they nodded. I whistled.

"Damn, talk about a coincidence. I'm sure there's some farfetched explanation as to why it's so, but for now, Occam's taking out his blade and my theory is that either there's a common source of magic in this plane of existence or there's a bigger picture of alien tentacle insect robots ready to harvest your magic." Yes, Mass Effect was the first thing that came to mind. No, I am not talking to myself. Maybe that soul fracture thing wasn't as safe as they thought?

"How about we skip the boring talk?" Blondie spoke up.

"And how about you wear something that actually covers something? Like, for fuck sake I don't even need to imagine anything you're basically naked there."

The other girls laughed at her expense, but the lack of a rising blush meant that she's used to it.

"ANYWAYS, I'm Stella, you rude bastard, that's Techna," the punky purple haired girl gave a nod, "Musa," the, black? or is that extremely dark purple hair?, waved, "And Flora." The brunette smiled shyly.

Wait, what's with all the weird names? Don't fucking tell me the clichés are in real life too?

"Ok, I'm going to go on a limb here and guess your affinities or powers or something. Stella's are related to either stars or the sun, since stellar and Stella are similar and you're basically yellow embodied. Techna's got something to do with TECHnology, Musa's music, Flora's flowers and Bloom..." I trailed off as I stared at her. Her red hair's the only thing that stood out.

"No idea, maybe fire or something. How close am I?"

...

Absolute silence.

"I hit the mark didn't I?"

The synchronised nods made me really tempted to face palm.

"Oh gods who hath created this world, why art thou so predictable?" I muttered under my breath.

"Moving past his ramblings," Bloom eye rolled at my indignant 'Hey!', "He knows what happened this year."

I'm guessing that was code for something because they all sighed.

"Why did you all just sigh?"

"Because it means that Ms. Faragonda needs to wipe your mind."

"Wait WHAT?"

* * *

"Ah Mr. Mercer I see you're awake. How are you feeling?" The kindly old woman in front of me wants to wipe my mind be cool about it John.

"Feeling pretty good for someone who's about to get their mind wiped."

She paused, before taking a look at the strict looking woman beside her.

"Griselda, did you tell them that I need to wipe his mind?"

She had the decency to look away.

"Well, Mr. Mercer, that won't be necessary. I trust that Bloom over here has chose her friends well, and that you will keep Alfea and Magix a secret for her sake."

"Sure will do grandma."

The whispers behind me stopped.

I frowned and turned around. "What? She does look like a grandmother."

"Well, I'm sure he didn't mean to disrespect me." Her stare was directed to who I assume to be the discipline mistress. Ok, this is getting creepy. I got to stop calling out their positions based on assumptions, even though they're probably true.

"Before we let you leave, however, I do have to check your body and soul to ensure that nothing went wrong. Soul magic IS a very convoluted branch of magic."

I shrugged. "Sure."

She cast a spell or something, and a blue glow appeared over my eyes.

"Huh..." She stared intently into an area near my heart.

"What is it?"

The glow died down, and her grandmotherly look was gone, replaced by one of curiosity that honestly looked creepy.

"It seems like you have developed magic of your own."

Several gasps behind me prompted me to glance back, but they didn't seem to know anything.

"Do you mean, magic as in the ability to do supernatural things?"

Her grandmother facade came back, and she gave a smile to me.

"Yes, however, it seems to be different from what we have. Instead of magic being formed in your soul, it's developing in your body, almost like..."

 _'Alaya... Magus... Prana...'_

"Veins."

What was that?

Did I just black out for a moment?

I glanced around me. No one seemed to realise I blacked out, so I didn't really black out. Did time stop?

I need to do some research.

"So, is it good news or bad news?"

"Good news, overall. You'd have the capability to use magic, and if it's similar to Fairy magic I might even enroll you into Alfea. But I will have to monitor you over the next few days, just to be safe."

"Sure. Can I have access to the library while I'm here? I might as well learn as much as I can while I still have my memories."

* * *

I gave up after the first chapter of Alfea's history. Why do people even bother recording these things down if NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENED?

Like, I don't need to know who had what for breakfast I want to learn about scientific and magical breakthroughs that changed the future of this new world! And this world is stagnant! Nothing ever changes! Other than the few 'Evil Bastards' (trademark) that tried to take over the world, nothing significant ever changes!

Sure, fashion and music do but those are perpetuated by the society's want of new genres and clothing.

"Giving up on your research?" Techna asked from her side of the table.

I nodded and gave a depressed sigh.

"Why is your world so boring? There is nothing huge like any revolution or revolts. It's the same damn system and government for CENTURIES!"

I got a couple of glares, but I ignored them in favour of burying my head in my arms.

I should just go mess around with my magic, see if I can use it.

"I'm gonna go." I stood up abruptly and left the table. From the sound of books being slammed shut and hurried shuffling, Techna was tagging along.

She caught up with me a few moments after I left the library, panting a little.

"Sorry, I should have probably waited for you, right?"

Her deadpan made me chuckle.

"You're so much like Bloom it's creepy. But then again you're all friends for a year now so you probably have some of her traits." I paused and turned to look at her.

"You know, you're probably one of the few people who let me ramble off without telling me I'm weird." She gave a small awkward smile. "Probably because you're unsure as to how to stop me so you would rather me just say everything in mind and hope it ends quickly."

She thought it over and nodded.

"Huh, you don't talk much. Probably because I'm still a stranger and all."

We reached the courtyard, and I found a shady corner that was devoid of the students coming back for consultations or class meetings or whatever.

I started muttering to myself.

"Ok, so Bloom awakened her magic by being in mortal peril and was on the verge of dying. Either I replicate that, or I try to channel small bits of magic to get used to it, and since grandma said it was like veins it probably would be better to practice with small quantities first."

Hm... What if I tried to get a feeling of the magic first? And then from there I'll see if I can get a feeling of controlling it internally before experimenting with it?

Seems good.

"What are you doing?" Techna's voice pierced through the silence as I laid on the grass.

"I'm going to get a feeling of my magic first before trying to control it internally. Seems better than accidentally blowing myself up or something while messing with the magic I'm not used to." I responded.

Ok, since she was staring near my heart, I can assume safely that most of my magic is there. Is there any new or unique feeling in that area?

I concentrated hard on my chest, and felt nothing.

I let out a sigh.

This seems easier in fictional shows and books. The sound of cloth shuffling in the grass reminded me of the member of Winx with me.

"You might want to go first Techna, you probably got more stuff to do. I'll be here if anyone needs me."

No sound, maybe she's already doing her work.

Back to trying to feel for my magic then.

Wait, it's cold.

I gingerly touched my chest with a finger.

It's cold. Like steel.

 _'Steel is my body-'_

 **PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN WHY OH GOD WHY WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH AHHHHHHHHH-**

I shot up gasping for air, sweating loads. The distant sounds of panic and screams filled my ears.

But what I focused on was the red. My chest was bleeding.

I took off my shirt, and instead of seeing skin I saw a reflective sheen.

My chest turned into metal.

Holy shit.

* * *

"Bloom cannot know about this." I told Techna as grandma held me in place with magic.

"But-" "No. She had a panic attack once that lasted an entire year. She must not know about this." She looked uncomfortable.

"Do this for her. She missed out on all those classes, and most of her free time to check on me. I do not want her to waste more of her time."

Techna bit her lip, obviously in a tough position, but she relented and nodded her head.

"Mr. Mercer, it seems that the fracturing of the foreign soul has left behind a few fragments."

Grandma's words made me snap my eyes to her.

"What did it do to me?"

Her face fell, and she faced the window, away from me.

"It gave you this magic, but it also forcefully adapted your soul into something that resembles the foreign one. You are no longer your old self, whoever that was before this soul's intrusion."

"So, I'm a new person?" I asked, suddenly insecure.

"No, you're still John Mercer, but you have changed in the way that most people change in years in the matter of a year whilst in a coma."

She sighed, and cleaned her glasses with a cloth.

"Your magic was very volatile and chaotic at first, but I have calmed it into submission by injecting peaceful fairy magics into your soul. As long as your soul is not heavily affected by any magic, you should be fine. Until then, I suggest you adapt to your new mannerisms and habits and try your best to practice magic under supervision."

I nodded, and the magic that held me up floated me gently to the ground before releasing me. I stared at the clean shirt on the chair, recalling the bloody scene an hour ago.

"So, if I can master the foreign soul's magic, my soul will be alright?"

Her eyes were filled with doubt, but she answered yes regardless.

I guess I can only tell if she's saying the truth after experimenting.

Since the magic's a lot calmer now, I should be able to do what I did earlier with a lot less side effects.

"Techna, you really don't have to be here. There's Griselda a few feet away watching me."

She looked reluctant to leave.

"Go on. Find one of the girls and hang out with them instead. It'll be better for you."

She gave me one last look, before muttering a goodbye as she left.

Ooh, ok so, concentrate on that cold feeling earlier...

Ok, shivers down my spine cold.

Not as bad as earlier.

I can feel the coldness swell up as I... 'touched' it?

Please, let me use you without killing myself. Let me use you, please?

The cold seemed to curl up more, before it flooded my body, making me gasp.

It was like my nerves were being dunked in cold water. It was a sudden jerk before it was over.

I was shaking all over, and I collected myself before I wrote on the notebook Bloom was generous enough to loan me.

'Magic seemed to respond positively to me, allowed me to 'probe' it to get a feel for it without any adverse side effects.'

Ok, now can I do anything else with you?

Seeing as most magic here affects the world around them I'm guessing you can do the same, and maybe more.

The cold feeling seem to cool slightly.

Was that a yes?

The coldness cooled again.

So you're sentient

Brrrrr. Ok that was too cold.

... Was that you laughing?

This does it. The world is officially weirder than weird. I got a sentient magic in me that's apparently a sarcastic bastard.

Maybe that's where I got the sarcastic douchebaggery.

* * *

 **Author's Notes**

HELLO READER!

Now you may be wondering, what the hell is going on with this story? The structure's weird and uncomfortable to read, and it's all just one liners. Almost literally.

WELL DEAR HYPOTHETICAL READER WHO'S ASKING THESE QUESTIONS, I honestly have no idea. I do have an excuse, though. I'm sick and I wrote this when drowsy from my meds. This idea hit me when I was reading a rather old but gold Harry Potter/Winx Club fanfic by the name of 'Specialist Potter' by Akela Victoire that just finished, and I do definitely recommend you to read. I'm not even halfway through and I'm obsessed with it already. Back to the idea, I was reading the aforementioned fanfic when all of a sudden my playlist hits me up with 'Unlimited Blade Works', the original soundtrack of Fate/Stay Night. So, after playing around a little with the idea, I decided to type it out. After I had my meds. Yes that was stupid of me, but at least I got something out :/

Now, would you kindly hit me up with a review? That would be nice.

THIS IS TIMELOCKEDMANIAC SIGNING OUT!

PEACE!

Edit: 30/10/16 Did some grammar and line editing because I'm an idiot for not checking *Facepalm* If anyone reading finds more mistakes, please do point it out.


	2. Magic in Coma Guy

Sitting on a chair in Bloom's room, I whistled a random tune as I stared at Musa getting increasingly frustrated as she glared at the pages of the textbooks in front of her. The door burst open, and Bloom came in with a piece of paper that I snagged from her loose fingers. It was a test, and she managed to score a solid B on it.

"Glad to see that you've at least caught up on your work Bloom."

Her tired, baggy eyes managed to glare at me before she flopped onto her bed.

"I hate you so much right now." She grumbled as she pushed her face into the pillow.

"And I love you too." My sarcastic remark got a middle finger from the girl in bed, making me grin.

"And speaking of love, who's this Sky I keep hearing about?" I started to tease. Her embarrassed groan made me laugh slightly. "You know Stella will just tell me if I ask nicely? It's better if you controlled what I know."

She lifted her face from the pillow, blushing madly. "Don't you dare." Her death glare was adorable with that huge crimson blush. The other Winx in the room was starting to get annoyed, and almost ripped a page apart as she shot me a look promising a quick death for disturbing her.

"Oh, but I do dear Bloom." I chuckled madly. "Ain't nothing you can do about it either." My insane laughter grew louder, only to be silenced when a pillow hit my face.

"Shut up idiot, some of us are trying to study here." Musa practically growled out from the opposing bed.

"Damn, who crawled up your ass and died there?"

I ducked from another pillow and quickly left the room with a cheeky grin.

"You know Musa's going to kill you one day right?" Flora's amused words from behind me made me giggle slightly.

"If she does I hope someone tapes it. That'll be rare." I turned to face her. She was standing near the door, and obviously had been listening in on the commotion. Not that I would blame her, I would do it too if I was her.

"Well, I won't do it." I shrugged at her amused look.

"Then Techna or Stella would do it. Maybe more on Techna, though." I stopped myself before I could ramble. I shot her a quick grin. "Go in then, I'll leave before Musa figures out that I switched her textbooks."

I skipped away, and laughed loudly at the frustrated scream from the room. Ah, the sweet tones of misery.

Your character may be a bastard, Karthus, but your lines are well written.

I really should get someone to be around me twenty four seven, I'm starting to ramble loads lately. My footsteps slowed to a halt. Is this me going crazy from the soul fracturing thing? I frowned as I considered the implications. Well, I was pretty crazy to begin with, but that was more of quirky eccentricity, not blatant madness that I might be experiencing now,

You know anything about this Soul?

The fragment near my heart warmed up slightly.

I guess not.

Well, this sucks.

I glanced around and saw Techna walking towards Bloom's room. "Hey." I greeted when she looked up from her high tech gizmo thing on her wrist.

She gave me a short smile, before going back to her wrist.

Wow, that's cold, even for her. Well, I guess Timmy boy finally got her email address or something. From what I heard from Stella, they're basically the cute tech savvy shy couple that wouldn't know how to progress a relationship like Brandon and former Winx mentioned.

And I got to apologise to Stella for basically calling her a slut after I woke from my eight months coma.

I paused for a moment.

Damn, eight months felt more like a day for me. Well, the coma thing did screw me over. I ran my fingers through my hair instinctively. After the coma, it remained white with no indication of turning back to its original color. Looking into the reflection of a window, I stared into the mismatched eyes. One steel grey, and the other black. The soul almost cannibalising mine must have had these traits from it's original or previous body, and it forced my body to adapt to it so as to overtake it easier.

Or, that's the explanation given by Faragonda when I asked her about it. Apparently, soul magic isn't practiced here, merely researched on, and the spell she used on me was actually a fifty-fifty thing that could have blown me up instead of the soul, and had many more varied risks, and it was a miracle that I even survived. Which tells me that I am either very lucky, which is an unviable option because I can't quantify luck to measure how lucky I am, or this is some main character bullshit of some crappy story, where I literally cannot die because I am essential to the plot or something.

Maybe I am. I glanced at where the soul fragment would be on my body.

I survived something that should have basically killed me. I went into an eight month and instead of atrophying my muscles grew. I had weird hair and eyes.

I am officially a 'Type:Main'.

I got all the traits of a main character. I have overcome some serious odds and gained magic where most men would have died horribly. I look weird as all hell but not unattractive as Stella had blurted out once. A 'Type:Extra' would have died when the coma hit, and their soul would have been disintegrated instantly allowing for the foreign soul to survive. They would be people with no names, and wouldn't even have a chance to survive.

I glanced at my hands.

I could be a 'Type:Main', but that means jack when dealing with plot devices. I can't access my magic, and when I do all I am able to do is to spread it around. I can't materialise it into the external organs like my skin, and it doesn't even do anything for me. All I got since the fragment 'accepted' me is get nightmares of fire and swords.

That could be a plot device by itself, but I still have nothing to use should some evil villain come knocking.

And this is all based on my theory that there is a 'Main Character' trope here.

Clichés seem to be everywhere in this magical world, so maybe I may be part of the clichés or tropes that exist.

If I am part of a trope, it better be one that makes me overpowered as all hell or I will die over some trivial thing and my death would push my new friends into gaining new powers. As much as I like them as people now that I got to know them, I would not die for them. Maybe I would for Bloom, but that's only because I know her since childhood.

My frown deepened. Damn, I'm going to be THAT childhood friend of the opposing gender.

This is going to be some love triangle shit, I can tell already. Sky's going to be insecure because he's a teenager that never had anyone telling him that they loved him, Bloom's going to be oblivious to this as this is her first relationship and I can't do anything without disrespecting either Sky or Bloom or both somehow. Sky will start by being insecure and thinking that I like Bloom, then start projecting himself onto me, followed by a long tirade of me trying to convince him that I'm not going for Bloom who is probably his girlfriend in his eyes but not from Bloom's perspective as she's still quite immature in relationships from her lack of social circles and experience. Bloom will over react to Sky's overreaction, and I would be left picking up the pieces and then slapping them both into reason once the fallout is clear enough to handle.

I can feel a headache coming on now. Where's aspirin when you need it?

* * *

"Why are you just sitting in my office?" Faragonda's amused voice jerked me from my meditating position, and I fell flat on my face with a yelp.

"Sorry, had to experiment with the magic, and since you said I needed supervision..." I trailed off after she raised a hand.

"Did something happen?" She asked knowingly.

"Well, you must be one hell of a grandma." She gave me a look. "And, yeah. It just occurred to me that I'm not as useless as I think I am, with all that's happening to me now."

She prompted me to elaborate with a roll of her hand.

"I was an angst filled teenager in America, and I get thrown into a world of magic just because of a soul invading MY body. The chances of me being picked is small as all hell, and the fact that I survived an eight month coma here with no allergies is a miracle in itself, not to mention that the risky spell that had more ways to kill me than chance to save me actually worked." I panted slightly from my rant.

She looked slightly torn when I looked at her.

"You can't really say that my life hasn't changed, because I can feel my sanity slowly slipping away. I find myself ranting to myself more, and I have what I think is the magic communicating to me which is weirder as you all have described magic as a force that yields to you once you have it."

She walked from the door and sat in front of me. She stayed silent, and her face was grim.

"Huh, you don't know what to say." I leaned in slightly to examine her face, which hardened. "Curious. At least a century of experience of living, and you don't know what to say." I leaned back, and sighed. "Damn, this magical realm sucks. Not even the headmistress of a magical school can deal with someone going mad."

Wait, that logic's flawed. I frowned. "Or not. I can't expect you to know everything even with the long years of experience you have, sorry." I apologised.

Her features softened, and she reached out to pat my shoulder.

"I had a friend who meddled with mind magic for a while." She spoke after a moment of silence. "She went mad after a spell went wrong."

Shit, now I feel bad for laying the guilt on her just to get some sympathy.

"I couldn't do anything. I tried to talk to her, tried to get her to even look at me, but she was shutting herself off. She developed multiple personalities, but each one of them were adamant with keeping everyone out of their lives." Tears were welling up in her eyes, and the guilt in me multiplied further. "Turns out, she didn't want to drag anyone down in her own madness that she caused. She thought that by being alone she would get us to ignore her, and then we won't be affected when she eventually went to suicide."

My eyes widened. Suicide of a fairy? In this cliché filled world? This realm's darker than I thought.

"It left me shaken, and I was affected by it for decades before I came to peace that I couldn't have done more for her now, so I would do more later to help anyone who would have any similar problems." She took a shaky breath. "I still don't know what to do, but I can be here for you." She laid her hand over mine. A small part of my mind immediately thought 'stranger danger', despite the calming aura she seemed to emit.

"Thanks grandma."

She gave a small smile, and removed her hand from mine.

"No problems."

* * *

Week 4, Day 6

The magic seems to be able to reinforce certain traits that I focus on when I want it to. Like when I want my strength to increase, it does by several degrees, but my arm was almost torn off when I tried pulling out a tree. And when I tried to reinforce the arm's durability instead, I lost the strength.

But that was the result of three weeks of experimenting with the magic. Overall, it's still quite useless because I have to be careful with it, and I cannot overextend it's usage for any longer than five minutes or I'll faint and have a high fever for the next few days.

What if my body was stronger? Not just after the reinforcing, but with the body itself being physically durable? It may work, but I still had to work out the kinks in the magic to ensure that there isn't a set limit, and that it allows for and adapts to the parameters of the body to change.

Ok, so that's a project that I got to do later on.

Speaking of projects, I managed to get Faragonda to give some insights on my magic. However, as the magic in me differs from the magic she uses and is used to, she couldn't exactly give any solid answers. She did theorise that since my magic could increase one of my parameters, it may also lead to me increasing the all the limits of my body in the future should I practice it sufficiently and properly. She had her doubts about this theory too, and said that it could also be possible that it may just be limited to strengthening only one characteristic of my body should the magic not be volatile enough. And with the calming effects of the spell she used on the magic, it might be better in terms of pure adaptability of the magic if the spell was lifted entirely, but that would lead the magic running rampant again and transmuting my body into steel.

A week of musing about the steel gave me an idea that I wanted to test out too. Because the magic turned my chest into steel, it may be possible that the magic is attuned to metals, and that I may have an easier time to use metal transmutation spells or any metal related spells. I had to get the magic to manifest outside my body first, though, to prove this theory.

It already proved that it was capable of transmuting flesh into metal, so the theory may have some solid reasoning to it.

I stayed mainly at the infirmary, away from the girls cleaning up the rubble of the school and the Winx. It might have had something to do with what grandma Faragonda said, but I didn't want to trouble them anymore. Especially Bloom, since she wasted most of her time at the infirmary with me over the school term and almost missed out on her lessons. It was only after Techna got her to study while at the infirmary did her grades improve.

And the sentient soul within me seemed to have gotten quiet, and was no longer communicating with me, or responding when I asked it some questions both mentally and out loud. Maybe my soul cannibalised it, which is why I made observable progress, albeit small.

And with the theory that stronger souls consume the weaker ones when placed in the same 'container', it made sense. My soul could have been adapting to the magic, and therefore my body adjusted for the magic too. Since the magic needs 'veins' to travel in my body, the foreign soul generated these when it was cannibalising my soul, and now that the soul is gone, the 'veins' that are still left within my body are able to conduct the magic. As the foreign soul might not have developed the 'veins' fully, it might explain my difficulty in trying to channel the magic or use it to it's fullest extent.

Then again, the magic might be extremely limited in it's own capacity to begin with, so the results that I am getting could be explained by that.

To whoever is reading this besides me, if you ever find this, I would like you to first slap yourself for invading my privacy because this is my diary. Then, after you're done with that, I want to request that you help me theorise about my magic, as it is not exactly a topic that you could research on from a book, Fairy or not. From what I heard, a Witch's magic might resemble mine in the way of self reinforcement, but my magic is limited to just that as of current results. Red Fountain Warlocks and students who use magic to reinforce their own bodies to push through their natural limits may also have magic similar to mine. These are just a few avenues that I wish to trial in the future, should I get the chance to. If I die and you're reading this after my death, don't even bother because apparently, my magic is one of a kind.

Signing off,

John E. Mercer

(Scribbles at the bottom of the page are close to illegible, but two words can be read. "Save ********. **** them.")

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Wooo, we hit 200 views in three days! That's an accomplishment right there for me. Also, totally forgot I could change the name of the chapters.

Now, dear reader, you may have noticed that I have included themes of suicide and insanity in this chapter. Those that are not comfortable with seeing these in this chapter, and by proxy the Winx Club fandom, should probably not continue reading because I am going to expand on these very liberally. I know that last bit of the diary was different from the previous chapter, but I decided to add it in because I feel that it's a very 'John E. Mercer' thing to do, and he needs a way to vent that seems reasonable. And to those who might be cringing at how badly this seems to be, trust me I plan to go _**waaaay**_ worse on the cringe factor. Clench your butt cheeks and prepare yourselves because this will take quite some time.

A small hint to the scribble, just to get your brain juices flowing if you're into the whole 'reading into the lines' thing. Maybe the soul that was in Mercer's body was in fact a EMIYA. (And I can say this because the whole 'Steel is my body' line is ripped off from the Unlimited Blade Works aria and even those new to the Fate/Stay fandom would know of it.)

Now let's take the time to think...

Well jokes on you, I know how this is going to go down, and it most probably isn't what you expect. But hey, as of now, the 'me' writing this story has very big aspirations thanks to Akela Victoire and her amazing story that is 'Specialist Potter' (and I will once again recommend reading it because I just finished it and I am fangirling all over it now.) so I probably will stick to the planned storyline. Or lose motivation like the feeble human I am and stop writing mid way only to pick it up years later. *shrugs* Who knows.

And with that weird rambling, I shall bid you, dear reader, adieu.

THIS IS THE TIMELOCKEDMANIAC SIGNING OUT!

Edit: 30/10/16 Made some grammar checks and changes. Please help me by telling me if I made any mistakes q.q I needs it.


	3. Why so angsty Coma Guy?

"I would like to ask you for your help in decorating and preparing the school for the welcoming party for this year's batch of fairies." Faragonda spoke as I entered her office. The five girls I was used to seeing around were already here, and turned to look at me as I entered. Well, this was awkward.

I blinked when what Faragonda said processed fully in my head.

"You don't need me here right? I mean, all I can do is just throw ideas around and be a deadbeat compared to them." I pointed out. Grandma merely smiled. Which is pretty creepy with the light creating a shadow over her face.

"That was the plan, John. You'll be in charge of handling the planning of the party, and the girls will be in charge of handling the logistics and overseeing the process of decoration and the like."

Stella looked pretty ticked off that she wasn't the one planning the party, and seeing that she really loves being in the limelight, I can tell why she's pissed at not being picked.

"Um, ok then. Stella will be in charge of the theme of the party, since I got zero clues on what you fairies and girls like, Techna will be making sure that the building's structurally sound and that any and all of the inventory used from the school will be maintained properly when not in the storeroom, Flora will be decorating the place to make the school look welcoming. Or more welcoming. Musa, you cover the sound checks and music for the party." I blanked out when I reached Bloom. Huh, everything's pretty much covered, and she doesn't exactly have any strong points that are useful in helping out in a party, that and she's pretty clumsy so I can't really assign her anything that requires any precise handling of-

"And me?" My childhood friend's voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

I looked at her, avoiding her eyes as I spoke. "Nothing you can do really." I shrugged. "Everything's basically covered. Now can I go grandma?"

The creepy smile returned twice fold, and I swear I can see her wrinkles grinning.

"You know that's not actually why I called you up here." God damnit, it's going to be her trying to get me to be more social, isn't?

"Yeah, I kinda got that vibe when you called me up after an entire week of basically ignoring me." I confessed. I looked at the Winx, and gave a sheepish laugh. "Is a 'Sorry' going to be enough or are we going to do the whole 'You ignored me so I'll ignore you' shtick?"

Flora's gentle look was the only comforting face out of the four deadpans.

"I guess I better explain myself. So I got a theory on my magic," Bloom immediately facepalmed at that. "That I wanted to explore, and I may have obsessed over it for the past week." I bowed slightly in apology. "So, sorry."

Wait, since when did I start bowing? What the hell?

"I told you so." Bloom muttered under her breath, and the Winx giggled slightly as she walked up to me. "And you," She jabbed a finger in my chest, before wincing and cradling said finger in her hands. "Don't forget about us. Did you know how worried we were when you just decided to ignore all of us and stay in the infirmary all day for the past eight days?"

"Very?" I asked, sheepish.

She gave a whack on my shoulder, before turning to the rest of the Winx. "Because of this, you owe us all an apology in the form of being at our beck and call for the whole day." Stella cackled with glee.

"No." It was my turn to deadpan. "I'm still busy with experimenting with my magic, and grandma promised me to let me go home today to grab more of my clothing and say good bye to Mom and Dad."

Bloom's face fell slightly after I said that, which is understandable since she might feel guilt for not letting me go home and not saying goodbye to my parents earlier. Not everyone is a fairy, or has parents like she does. "Then it's alright."

The rest of the girls looked on in confusion, as I patted her shoulder. "It's ok. I say hi to Mike and Vanessa for you." She smiled in thanks, and I looked up to Faragonda. "I'll go in about an hour, can you open a portal for me then?" She nodded, before mentioning that I would need someone to come with me.

"I suppose Bloom wants to come along?" I looked back to my friend. She grimaced, and shook her head. Wow, that's a surprise.

"Professor Palladium wants me to test the Simulation Chamber today, and he said that he needs me to push the limits of the Chamber so it wouldn't blow up like it did last year." She explained, clearly not liking it.

"So, who volunteers?" The rest of the Winx looked uncomfortable for 'replacing' Bloom's place.

"Since Techna's role in the party isn't required until later on, I suppose she could go with you." Grandma's suggestion made the girls sigh in relief, for not making them choose, and the technological fairy crumpled slightly.

"I'll go grab what I need then, see you in the courtyard later."

* * *

"Thanks for coming along Techna, even though you never really had any say."

She looked awkward without her usual technologies with her, but then Faragonda didn't want her to bring anything that could possibly reveal Alfea, so I guess the temporary ban on her is reasonable. I guess I'll just have to be quick so she won't have to suffer for long.

"No problem." She fidgeted around as we waited for Faragonda to send us off. Bloom supposedly gave her the coordinates of where I live so we would be transported right in my home, and only Bloom and grandma knew about the coordinates. With Bloom busying blowing up the Simulation Chamber, that left with grandma to open the portal.

"So how's your parents coping with you being away for so long?" Techna suddenly spoke up, taking me by surprise but I managed not to flinch.

"Um, they're kinda dead." It was her turn to be taken aback. "Yeah. Bloom's parents are my official guardians, even if I didn't live with them. Looks like they got a thing for orphans." I tried to joke, but the tasteless humor only succeeded in making her look like she swallowed a lemon.

"I'm... sorry...?" Her confused tone was so adorable, like a child who thought that she'd done something wrong and was waiting to be scolded. Actually, that's not cute at all. That's borderline mentally scarring. Huh, I am going crazy. Nice.

"It's ok, you didn't know about it." I waved away her apology. "Plus, I'm used to it. People never know about my past, and they always get so guilty for thinking that they're bringing up bad memories."

Her shoulders relaxed immensely after what I said. She must be relieved that I understand her apology, even if she didn't understand it herself. She IS pretty naive for a sixteen year old, though.

"How about your parents? How are they?" It was my turn to be awkward as she turned away from me.

"Is this a normal thing for people to do?" She asked after a while. "Talking about their past like the weather?"

I couldn't help myself, and probably confused the poor girl but I laughed so hard I was left wheezing. She looked in concern and confusion, and I stopped her from asking anything with a hand raised.

"Oh my god, we cannot tell Bloom what just happened. She will hit me so hard I will probably end up like the Trix." I calmed myself down enough, and struggled to keep in the giggles.

"See, the thing I found funny is that you said normal with me in the context. I'm not exactly the standard of normality." She broke out in a small giggle when she realised what I was laughing about.

"Exactly. On a more serious note, however, people talk about their past for a couple of reasons, but the main ones are that they are either looking for sympathy, a way of connecting to someone else emotionally, to search out people with similar pasts so that they got someone to talk to, or just to rant because they kept something in their chest for too long." She nodded as I explained. "It's just what I have learned from watching people," I frowned at that. "Which sounds creepier than expected." She giggled at that too.

"People aren't what you understand, huh?" I noticed verbally.

She nodded hesitantly. "I don't know what is appropriate to say, to do. I just know that people can be nice at times, and nasty at others."

I nodded, understanding what she meant. "But people do not represent person, you know?" She looked confused. "I mean, look at Stella. She doesn't seem like the golden standard for a role model, and she's a princess of an entire planet." Her eyes slowly glinted in recognition. "A person is unique when away from a crowd, no matter who that person is. Which is why you can deal with the Winx and me, and not large groups of people. So, don't focus with dealing with people, but narrow it down to a few persons instead."

Grandma chose this time to show up.

Oh my god, I just realised. Faragonda's my fairy grand mother. Not literally, but still. A certain childhood cartoon's theme song started playing in my head, but I muted it out by flooding my mental ears with metal songs. Banish thyself, foul creation that is Fairy Oddparents.

"Ready to go?" She asked. Techna and I nodded.

Faragonda gave a small smile, and started chanting some words under her breath for a moment, before a portal opened up in front of us. Despite being around magic for a full four months now, I couldn't help but flinch at the sounds it made when it opened. We walked through it, and I could feel the difference in air temperatures and the piercing sun's rays almost immediately.

"I'll expect to see you back before sun down." Faragonda's voice was the last thing we heard before it closed.

We were in my room, and the window showed that it was quite sunny outside. The messiness that I was used to was comforting, and everything was exactly where I placed it before I went into that coma a year ago. I took a look around my room, and laughed quietly, drawing Techna's attention from a figure of a comic book on my shelf.

"Never thought I would see the day where a girl would be in my room with me." I laughed slightly harder at her reaction, which was blushing hard and looking as if she had hit her foot.

"I'll go pack my stuff up before clearing what's in my kitchen so the apartment won't stink when I come back in the future." I told her, before grabbing a rather large bag that I once used for school. The textbooks of chemistry and biology made me reminisce. I used to hate biology, until Mr. Mark came along and taught me the wonders of science, then I was hooked on it. I chucked a few blank notebooks from my shelves into my bag, as well as my writing supplies. Techna sat on my bed, and took immediate interest at my laptop and MP3 player.

"Such primitive technology..." I heard her mutter.

"I must look like such the neanderthal compared to what you're used to." I joked as I begun chucking in some reference books of biology, physics and chemistry in my bag.

"Yeah, this was the craze a few centuries ago." Her whisper could be heard only in this silent room. Her fingers reached out to touch them with her brow creased, as if trying to understand how technology advanced from this to what she was used to.

"It's sad that these need batteries to work." She suddenly spoke up when I moved to folding clothing from my wardrobe.

"What do you recommend then? Removing the batteries?" My sarcasm garnered a glare from her. "What? It's a primitive technology that needs a power source to work. Unless you plan on circumventing the power source bit, which is impossible if you want it to still function." I struggled to fit all the clothing in the bag, and had to use another bag that I once used for keeping all of my shoes. Thank god Vanessa made it a habit for me to wash the bag every week, or it'll be stinking like cheese left in my apartment in the past year.

"If you think you can do it, then go for it. A powerless functioning MP3 player would be like the best thing to exist right next to food and magic." Her eyes shone with a certain light, and sharpened considerably. Is this what Techna looks like if she accepts a challenge? Because she looks scarier than Bloom when she's pissed off and having the time of the month at the same time.

"I'll... go clean up the kitchen now." I left her glaring at my gadgets in her grasp in my room. Damn, Bloom makes the weirdest friends.

* * *

"Is Bloom alright there? She said that there was an attack on the school when she last called." Mike was nervous. And rightfully so, because he hasn't seen me in a full year and I look like a complete stranger with my heterochromic eyes and white hair.

"Yeah, she said that they managed to fight off the 'Army of Darkness'." I scoffed at the lame name. "Oh, and she couldn't come, because a professor needs her help with testing something. She says hi."

My two adoptive parents looked pensive over the video call, and glanced at each other.

"John, we're so sorry that-" "Are you ok over there?" Vanessa started, but was cut off by Mike.

I gave a small somber smile. "Yeah. I'm coping well. Don't worry about it Mom." Still feels weird to call Vanessa 'Mom' and Mike 'Dad', especially when I knew them as 'Bloom's cool mom', and 'Bloom's weird dad', until I was fourteen.

Vanessa crumpled in relief. "Thank god." I heard her mutter under her breath.

"So how's the school? Any girl in particular catch your eye?" Mike gave a mischievous smile when he spotted Techna in the background. "Or is that who you're going to be introducing us to?"

I let out a huff in amusement. "She's taken already, Dad. And no, no one there in particular strikes me as the type that I would like in that way." His smirk still held when he passed the phone to Vanessa.

"So are you going to visit later?" She asked, obviously still nervous at talking to her 'son' after a year of silence. Well, I have to make up for that, but this isn't the time for that.

"No, I'm going to visit Mom and Dad later." Her eyes widened slightly, before she nodded, choking back on her tears. Shit, I should have tried to tell her in a gentler way.

"You go do that John. And tell Bloom that we love her."

"Will do. See you guys soon, hopefully."

They hanged up, and I placed the phone back on the table.

"Just one more thing left to do, then we can go back to Alfea." I told Techna, whom seemed to be dealing with less of her withdrawal symptoms of the lack of her comfort zone.

"Alright." She was zoned out, and was still staring at my laptop.

"I'll be back in about an hour, feel free to... do whatever I guess. Just don't do anything Faragonda won't want you to do."

She gave anod, and obviously didn't hear what I said. I sighed, and wrote a note and stuck it to the table in front of her, before leaving.

* * *

"Hi Mom, hi Dad." It was considerably less sunny now, and the graveyard was quiet save a few visitors. I knelt down, and wiped the dust off their tombstones.

"Sorry if I haven't been visiting lately, it's just that," I gave a quick look to ensure that no one was looking. "I got magic now. It's a long story, but Bloom's a fairy." I laughed softly at the irony. "And she was the one who was addicted to them too." I sat on the dirt in front of their tombstones, and started to regale my experience at Alfea, while making sure no one was close enough to hear it.

"The Winx are a bunch of nice people, and I'm sure Dad will get along with Stella quite well. Flora's what my sister would be like too." My eyes started tearing up slightly. "You'll start smothering them like Mom did Bloom when she realised she loved cupcakes." My laughter was mixed with the tears dripping down. The chuckling slowed to a stop, and I caressed the marble portrait of my mother.

"I missed you guys. It's been two years, but I really can't move on from what happened. I know I should, but I don't know how to. I keep feeling as if it's my fault that you died, even though I know you'll probably slap me and tell me I'm wrong." I bit my lower lip. "I can't really visit much anymore, because I gotta be monitored by Faragonda to ensure that the magic won't kill me."

The sky was far darker than what it had been when I arrived. I looked at the flower I planted between their graves three years ago, and couldn't help but remember the Forest of Flowers that Bloom and I used to go to.

"I will visit as much as I can, but I won't be able to be around again for this year." I stoodup, and gave in to the urge to bow. "Goodbye."

* * *

I returned to an ugly sight. Techna in her fairy form having her hands and magic out, with my laptop and MP3 player being dismantled for one, and half the living room covered in soot. You know the bottom half, the one with the floor.

"What are you doing?" She jumped and turned to look at me. Her shock turned into a sheepish expression.

"First of all, don't apologise because I'm sure you don't mean it, secondly, I want those in one piece and finally why the hell are your wings out?"

She gulped, and stuttered. "This-um, I'm trying to make your 'MP3 player' work without a battery?"

I tried to think of why she would do this, then I remembered that I basically challenged her right before leaving her to a private room where she can abuse her magic with basically no consequences.

"Are you at least going to be done with that soon? Cause we got about half an hour to head back before grandma starts popping some veins." I glanced at the window, and saw that the sun was setting. "Never mind, she's going to go ballistic on our asses now."

She quickly finished up what she was doing in panic and opened a portal. I grabbed the two bags I packed and went through first.

The other side was still sunny. Huh. Must have different time zones or whatever. Techna's glare went ignored as I skipped back to the building, to my sweet sweet hideout. Accidentally trolling someone is so fun, and she can't actually do anything since I was kinda right. To the infirmary! Wait, that sounds lame. Well, I got nothing to name it. To the infirmary it is!

Oh yeah, she still has my stuff.

"Pass me those or what's left of those after you're done." I said over my shoulder before I turned the corner. Might need a plastic bag for the scraps later, who knows.

Footsteps grew loud before growing soft. Huh, she's going away. Which makes sense since her room's on the other wing opposite of the infirmary. Now, gotta do some testing to get my mind off of the depression that'll set in later. Visiting my parents tends to do that.

Hopefully Bloom would leave me alone for the next few days, or I may snap at her again like I did last year. I still feel really bad about it, but she understands. Kinda. I hope she does, it'll be really shitty if she doesn't and she was being her old self of sucking up whatever shit people threw at her with no retaliation or resistance.

Actually... She did slap me after I pushed her away. Huh, so she did change. She was just being nice for a few days before getting fed up with me.

Nice, she's becoming less of a pushover.

I have taught her well.

... Resisting the urge to say 'Young Padawan'.

Wait why am I going back to the infirmary? Faragonda wanted to see me as soon as I came back.

My hand naturally went to slap myself.

God damn it why do I keep getting side tracked?

* * *

"I see that you're back. Where's Techna?" Faragonda asked, but with a knowing look. How does someone even HAVE a knowing look?

"She... Has a project she's doing now."

"She's playing with the technology she found there." That was so matter-of-factly I think she just read off a dictionary.

"Yup."

She chuckled slightly under her breath. "As expected from her." Her eyes softened a little when she looked up to me again. "How are you coping?"

I shrugged, not really wanting to discuss this now. "Eh, I don't really feel like discussing this now. Maybe later, when I'm done with sorting out with my inner angst." She nodded understandingly.

"Just know that you have friends who are more than willing to listen to you."

I laughed mirthlessly as I opened the door to leave.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

* * *

Week Eight Day Four

I've been trying to develop more than just reinforcing of my limbs, and the attempt to reinforce my internal organs have worked, so far. Over the course of Week Seven, I have been consuming alcohol under supervision of Faragonda and nurse, who is quite alright with me basically living in the infirmary, while reinforcing my liver to counter any and all effects of ethanol poisoning. The experiment was a success, and I managed to stay sober for three vodka bottles that Mike somehow delivered to Bloom without Vanessa knowing. Or maybe she knows, since she looked quite worried when I last talked with them. Maybe they think I'm an alcoholic now. Anyways, besides me bleeding into my digestive tract from the cancerous liver, the experiment showed that I could reinforce my internal organs. I had to negatively reinforce the cells ligamese or whatever enzyme it's called that inhibits cell division, so my liver has possibly lost twenty years of shelf life.

Also another thing I learned, negative reinforcement works as well as positive reinforcement. I can induce cell death by forcing my cells' ligamese to shorten, which in turn will reduce the amount of times it can divide and hence reduce that organ's durability.

Which leads to me believing that my magic may be focused on concepts and ideas instead of actual science, since I doubt ligamese is affected by any of the chemicals and toxins found in Alfea, judging by Faragonda's long age. This may prove useful, although I got to prove it first by finding something that I can reinforce with obvious results while not risking my life. Maybe an IQ test of sorts, but then I won't be able to have an accurate result since it's not a concrete test. A test of eyesight maybe? Without the ability to control my eye's shape physically without the manifestation of magic, I could reinforce the concept of 'sight' or 'sharpness of image seen' and see the magic manifest, unless it's invisible, in that case I can prove that my magic can and does affect the physical world directly. However, since I only got two eyes, and they don't regenerate like livers do, I got to be careful. I discussed this with the nurse and Faragonda already, and they have stated their doubts along with any capabilities of potentially giving me eyes with magic. So, on the off chance that I do go blind due to the eyes gettiing messed up, I got back ups.

Magic is an amazing thing.

A shorter entry today, but it's because I need to get more sleep so I won't be as angsty tomorrow when I wake, and I can fool everyone but Bloom that I'm fine, which will give me more time to mull over some personal issues.

John E. Mercer,

Goodnight

(The corner of the diary is torn out, making it stand out from the other pristine pages.)

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Woo this is fun to write. Just saying, I got no betas, so I am looking for one on the third chapter because it makes sense. Also, in response to Raidentensho's review, (I love you for having an account and reviewing by the way), OH MY AKASHA! LOL! It's not going down that route, trust me. I've made some hints as to what John's magic might be, but it's totally not Unlimited Blade Works. After all, he isn't a kid that survived the Fuyuki Fire (or, going by this chapter's latest advancement, is he? DUN DUN DUN DUUUN! Nah he's not.) It's a trend I'm trying to go against simply because it doesn't make sense for my particular story. After all, he isn't Shirou Emiya. Some questions for you, dear reader. Who is it screwing with John's diary? What's with the scribling and torn page? Where are my pants? WHERE ARE MY-Oh wait, nevermind I found them. On my head.

THIS IS PANTCRAZEDMANIAC SIGNING OFF, SEE YA!


End file.
